Monday, May 28, 2007

Playing with more new stuff I bought a few shows ago....trying to get the stuff put away, what better way then to use it! Not sure how "artistic" this is...but I'm doing more drawing...so that is good!

I received these from my secret pal the other day. They are really wonderful. The only thing I'm not crazy about the one-skein book is that the have the colored pictures in the middle and the patterns in the rest of the book. I always prefer to have the pictures with the pattern. But there is some scope for inspiration there, and that is what I wanted. The spinning book is one that I've wanted for awhile. It shows you how to spin without needing a spindle, but just a wire with a hook on the end. I thought that was cool, and how to ply.

Wide Open is great. I've been trying to do more art journaling. This is a kit more then a book. There are cards to use as prompts and a journal in it that is already colored. At first I wasn't sure if I could write on the beautifully colored pages, but when I did I understood why people do that. It really makes the writing come to life, no matter what you are writing about.

Anyone in the UK going to Brighton for the Knit In? Some of us from my Stitch 'n Bitch are going. Looks like it should be fun!

Sunday, May 27, 2007

At the moment I don't have any pictures from the trip. My hubby has the camera with him and he won't be back to this evening. True fully, I didn't take that many pictures.

We did camp, even though it rained all afternoon. We didn't put up the tent until the evening, which seemed to be a good thing. We had a good time, though we had to call it early day on Sunday.

What I will talk now is the workshops we did. They were just want I wanted, something to inspire me. The first was about using natural materials such as basket material for knitting. Ruth Lee that I bought. It is really experimental and showed us some swatches that she had knit from daylillys that she had dried and then soaked in water. it was amazing. She gave us all a chance to knit with very think reed. It was very easy really. Could make some nice art. She also had written a book about scarves and boas really interesting. Not the usual scarves patterns which is good. We also went to a workshop with Di Gilpin. She is another experimental knitter that was so inspirational. She showed us slides of some of her travels that inspire her knits. She doesn't start with a pattern, just an idea and the yarn. She then tries to duplicate the textures, colors and structure of what has inspired her. She then writes up the patterns. Below is one of her books . She has us try it ourselves, my piece is a bit of an embarrassment because I was tired and couldn't get my fingers to do with what my mind was telling it. But what was so good was how freeing it was, and how it made me think about embellishing knits. I might even take a pattern that I'm working on and add texture etc just for the fun of it.

I bought lots of equipment that I will take a picture of when I can.

This blogging is so strange for me at the moment. I have lots to post about, but never seem to get the time to do it. I also am having trouble keeping everything organized. I have to redo my bookcase by my chair in the living room and my craft room again.....sigh...I seem to be organizing more then I get to spend time actually crafting....sigh.....oh well!